Banner Saga Endings

Ending #82 The Banner Saga Developer: Stoic Studios Publisher: Versus Evil Steam 2014 This game is beautiful, poignant, thoughtful and oozes aesthetic class. At the same this game is cold, depressing, harsh, and the atmosphere of it all weighs on the player like an albatross around the neck. One can't help but get the sense of emptiness and abandonment when playing the game. The endless trek through snow fields and mountains provides a sense of diaspora that has perhaps come closest to the real thing in any video game. Battles are challenging and break up the feeling of exodus if only for a brief moment. The challenge of fights, especially when facing the Dredge will only increase the feeling that all is hopeless as you fight down to the last man in many occasion. The battles with the humans are a stark reminder that, even in the end of days, man's greed and humanist desires will still drive their actions. The music is somber and chilling. It's is some of the most beautiful atmospheric pieces I have ever heard in a video game. The drums and the wailing at times give the sense that they are pushing your troupe along even when the weight of it all is telling them to stop. In the end, you are only temporarily able to stop the onslaught and the never ending wave of dredge just long enough to hasten a retreat and even then, you are asked to make the ultimate sacrifice. The game ends knowing there will be more, knowing still that Ragnarok is absolute...final...can not be stopped.